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Pre-release titles of the film were Knockout , Give and Take and Stand Up and Fight . Stand Up and Fight later became the release title of an early 1939 Robert Taylor film that co-starred Wallace Beery (see below). Although Oliver Marsh is listed as the Photographer in the HR production charts for several weeks at the beginning of the production, only John Seitz is credited on the film and in reviews. A HR news item noted that Victor Fleming was assigned to direct two additional scenes for the film in mid-Jul 1938 because director Richard Thorpe was already on another assignment, and that actors Emma Dunn and Paul Fix were to be featured in the scenes. Although the CBCS credits Leona Roberts with the role of "Laura McCoy," that role was played by Dunn in the released film.
According to several reviews, this was the second film in M-G-M's campaign to give screen idol Taylor a more "rugged" image after several years of being called "pretty Robert Taylor" in the press. The first of the films was A Yank at Oxford , released earlier in the year (see below), which also co-starred Maureen O'Sullivan and was one of Taylor's most popular films. At the end of 1938 Taylor was ranked sixth among top box office stars by an MPH exhibitor's poll, having fallen from third place on the same poll in 1937. A news item in HR noted that the film's release date was Taylor's birthday (his twenty-seventh). Maxie Rosenbloom, Jim McLarin and Jack Roper, who played themselves, were well ...
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Pre-release titles of the film were Knockout , Give and Take and Stand Up and Fight . Stand Up and Fight later became the release title of an early 1939 Robert Taylor film that co-starred Wallace Beery (see below). Although Oliver Marsh is listed as the Photographer in the HR production charts for several weeks at the beginning of the production, only John Seitz is credited on the film and in reviews. A HR news item noted that Victor Fleming was assigned to direct two additional scenes for the film in mid-Jul 1938 because director Richard Thorpe was already on another assignment, and that actors Emma Dunn and Paul Fix were to be featured in the scenes. Although the CBCS credits Leona Roberts with the role of "Laura McCoy," that role was played by Dunn in the released film.
According to several reviews, this was the second film in M-G-M's campaign to give screen idol Taylor a more "rugged" image after several years of being called "pretty Robert Taylor" in the press. The first of the films was A Yank at Oxford , released earlier in the year (see below), which also co-starred Maureen O'Sullivan and was one of Taylor's most popular films. At the end of 1938 Taylor was ranked sixth among top box office stars by an MPH exhibitor's poll, having fallen from third place on the same poll in 1937. A news item in HR noted that the film's release date was Taylor's birthday (his twenty-seventh). Maxie Rosenbloom, Jim McLarin and Jack Roper, who played themselves, were well known boxers of the time. This film has no relation to the 1932 Howard Hawks directed film of the same name (see above). M-G-M made another version of the story under the title Killer McCoy in 1947. That film starred Mickey Rooney in the title role and James Dunne as his father.
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Scrappy choirboy Tommy McCoy earns pennies singing at the pool hall, hoping to help his hard working mother. His father Brian, a shirking former vaudevillian, decides to have Tommy sing before a boxing match, and when a member of the crowd goads him, also has Tommy box the man's son. Because Tommy is successful at fighting, too, champion Johnny Martin sponsors him on a road trip. Brian gambles and drinks away their money, even though Tommy tries to send some home. When Tommy's mother Laura dies, Brian regrets his behavior, but doesn't change. Many years later, Tommy is a successful boxer. When his old friend Johnny comes out of retirement, Tommy tries to go easy on him in a match, but Johnny is accidentally killed from one of the blows. Although Martin's wife knows that Tommy is blameless, the newspapers call him "Killer" McCoy. His guilt over Johnny and his estrangement from Brian after Brian sells his contract to gambler Jim Cain makes Tommy decide to quit the ring. He tries to find other work, but can't, so he eventually goes back to Cain, who promotes him as a fighter who wins on "lucky" punches, and wins alot of money on long odds. In training at an estate owned by Cain under his real name of "Carson," Tommy meets his daughter Sheila. They fall in love, but, as Sheila knows nothing about her father's business, Cain is against their relationship. They continue to meet secretly and Tommy plans to give up fighting, but, just as he is about to enter the ring in a championship fight, he ...
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Scrappy choirboy Tommy McCoy earns pennies singing at the pool hall, hoping to help his hard working mother. His father Brian, a shirking former vaudevillian, decides to have Tommy sing before a boxing match, and when a member of the crowd goads him, also has Tommy box the man's son. Because Tommy is successful at fighting, too, champion Johnny Martin sponsors him on a road trip. Brian gambles and drinks away their money, even though Tommy tries to send some home. When Tommy's mother Laura dies, Brian regrets his behavior, but doesn't change. Many years later, Tommy is a successful boxer. When his old friend Johnny comes out of retirement, Tommy tries to go easy on him in a match, but Johnny is accidentally killed from one of the blows. Although Martin's wife knows that Tommy is blameless, the newspapers call him "Killer" McCoy. His guilt over Johnny and his estrangement from Brian after Brian sells his contract to gambler Jim Cain makes Tommy decide to quit the ring. He tries to find other work, but can't, so he eventually goes back to Cain, who promotes him as a fighter who wins on "lucky" punches, and wins alot of money on long odds. In training at an estate owned by Cain under his real name of "Carson," Tommy meets his daughter Sheila. They fall in love, but, as Sheila knows nothing about her father's business, Cain is against their relationship. They continue to meet secretly and Tommy plans to give up fighting, but, just as he is about to enter the ring in a championship fight, he receives word that Sheila and Brian have been kidnapped by rival gambler "Pug" Walsh. Walsh expects Tommy to lose in the eighth round, but wants him not to look like he is throwing the fight. Tommy holds out, despite a terrible beeting, but finally knocks out his opponent when he sees that Sheila is all right. Brian, who had feigned a heart attack to help her escape, is killed by one of the kidnappers. Realizing that they love Sheila more than they dislike each other, Tommy and Cain become friends and Sheila promises to help reform them both. Finally, Tommy and Sheila are married.
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Seventy-year-old newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane dies in his palatial Florida home, Xanadu, after uttering the single word “Rosebud.” While watching a newsreel summarizing the years during which Kane ... >>

The American Film Institute is grateful to Sir Paul Getty KBE and the Sir Paul Getty KBE Estate for their dedication to the art of the moving image and their support for the
AFI Catalog of Feature Films and without whose support AFI would not have been able to achieve this historical landmark in this epic scholarly endeavor.